Silver State Day 2

We have been lucky so far this week with the weather. It's hot, around 90, but with no winds. Check out the pictures from the third round of electric buggy. I am pitting for the team so it's impossible to get photos from the nitro qualifiers. The track is holding up with a few large holes at the end of the main straight and on the left side of the track. All in all so far this has been a great event. Enjoy the photos.

Horizon hobby Booth at The Intermodellbau Dortmund Model/ RC Show

Here at the final round of the Euro Off-Road series in Dortmund, is one of Germany's largest hobby shows called the Intermondellbau Dortmund Model/RC Show which is "BIG". The EOS race is in one of the eight buildings the show takes up here in Germany. I have had the chance to take some photo's of the building next to the race track which also has the Horizon Hobby booth that is quite nice i have to say.

Practice Day in Germany for Round 3 of the EOS Series

Today was practice at round 3 of the EOS Series in Germany. The drivers would each get five runs with each of the cars which was great for the U.S. drivers to make some changes to better there times. The TLR Euro team seemed to have to cars working very well for them selves. There was very little changes made to the TLR22 buggy. Darren Bloomfield was able to get the track layout down pretty fast and seemed to be very consistent with both his TLR22 and XXX4 buggy's putting himself in both A-qualifiers. Dustin Evans, Mike Truhe and Osker Levin were all running very strong in 2wd buggy making very little changes to there cars from round 2 of the EOS series. Overall today was a very successful day for a the TLR drivers putting in good times with all the cars and feeling good going into qualifying tomorrow. Qualifying tomorrow will be four round with each car, taking your best two rounds. With the success of today tomorrows qualifying should be good for the team. Look for updates tomorrow on qualifying!!

Practice results: (Best 3 consecutive laps)

2wd Buggy 2-Dustin Evans 3-Darren Bloomfield 5-Mike Truhe 9-Oskear Levin
4wd Buggy 4-Darren Bloomfield 8-Mike Truhe
4wd Short Course 3-Prumper Bjorn 4-Mike Truhe 5-Dustin Evans

New STOCK and Modified Setups for the TLR 22 and 22T

We just posted a few new setups for the TLR 22 and 22T.

We have Michael Losi's winning stock trucknsetup from the Cactus Classic and Travis Brock's stock truck setup from OC R/C Raceway. For the modified racers we have added two 22T setups from Corey Bernardo and Ryan Dunford.
Michael Losi's Truck Stock Setup
Travis Brock's Truck Stock Setup from OC R/C Raceway
Corey Bernardo's Truck Setup from R/C Excitement
Ryan Dunford's Truck Setup-Clay High-bite

For the TLR 22 we have added Michael Losi's stock setup from the Cactus Classic and JR Mitch's modifed low-bite setup from Lake Park, Florida.
Michael Losi's 2wd Stock Setup from Cactus Classic
Jr Mitch's Low Bite setup from Lake Park, Florida

2012 Silver State Challenge

This weekend is the 2012 Silver State Challenge in Boulder City, Nevada. Over the weekend we will post photos and provide small updates to the event. Today starts two rounds of qualifying with 31 heats of racers. So far the track is holding up well and staying smooth.

Round 3 of the EOS Series (Day 1)

We arrived Thursday in Germany for Round 3 of the EOS Series. Today was set-up and to take a look at the Euro style track. The team was lucky enough to be able to take some laps around the track today. This was great for the to U.S. drivers Dustin Evans and Mike Truhe that are out of there comfort zone on these tracks. Practice will start tomorrow at 8:30am with each driver getting five practice runs on the track per class. Look for more updates on practice later today.

What's more important?

In February we attended the Dirt Nitro Challenge in Phoenix, Arizona. During the race, the days were extremely long due to the amount of racers at the event. I believe there were around 560+ entries in the 1/8th classes. With all of this time I watched most racers tune their cars, talk setup and tire choices, discuss the latest rumors of which driver is doing what and other general gossip. Watching all of this inspired me to write this blog post. I witnessed many of the drivers not watching the track. This was from the pro's to the amatuer's. Many years ago while I was working along side Gil Losi Jr. he suggested for me to go to a major event and not race. I thought to myself "what the heck is he thinking? I can't go to a race and not race." I asked him why and he wouldnt tell me. Well I never did do what he said and as my racing started to come to an end in 2008 and 2009 I started attending events to help the team rather than race. Whether it was an electric or nitro race, I would go solely to help out. Then it hit me and I understood what Jr. was talking about many years ago. Going to the race and not racing helped me realize and taught me more about the track than driving on it. After many of the races I swear I could pick up a car and drive it around the track picking up the fast lines quite easily. Why? Because I just watched cars all week put thousands of laps on the track. My point here is not telling you to go to races and not race but when you go racing focus on spending more time watching the competition and others go around the track. Watch the lines racers are taking, pay attention to the tires they're running and how they're car is handling. You will be truly amazed at the information you will pick up on and this visual data will astound you. Then when you run your car, in practice or a qualifier, you can make better decisions on line choice, track changes, and tire selection. We learn from watching, not from sitting in our pit area bench tuning our car's or gossiping about the latest rumors. At the end of they day we are racing to win and watching the track is the cheapest tuning part you can add to your race program.

Race on!

Todd